Fourth World Eye Blog

Mirjam Hirch

Human safaris, the incresing pressure of resources depletion and development have been wreaking havoc on one of India’s most ancient tribes. A recent documentary illustrates some of the ares of tension. Outsiders need to start listening to what the tribes themselves have to say on matters affecting them and the existential questions that have to [&hellip... more →

The Dongria Kondh people fight against the mining of bauxite in their ancestral lands, the Niyamgiri hills in India. Their battle is “not just that of an isolated tribe for its customary rights over its traditional lands and habitats, but that of the entire world over protecting our natural heritage”, as the newspaper the Guardian [&hellip... more →

Uncontacted until recently the Jarawa of the Andaman Islands in India are exposed to potential abuse. Disrespectful tourists come in droves to take photos and make illegal films of the Jarawa inside their homelands. As described in a recent article in the Guardian, human rights activists have protested that the government was “making a circus” [&hellip... more →

“A people that sings will never die-out.” This is the line recited at the end of the short documentary on the survival of Basque cultural identity. Unifying forces are described as well as the importance of boat building, linguistic and other factors that form the underlying elements on which the Basque ship of history has [&hellip... more →

The short documentation, Civilized to Death, gives an in depth analysis of the social determinants of health among First Nation groups in Canada. Underlying mechanisms for consistent indigenous ill health likely hold true in other indigenous contexts. Part 1 Part... more →